Elastic stationary phase for the development of original filtration/recovery systems of metallic ions – ESSENTIAL

Metallic micropollutants are rejected by chemical, mining, electronics and metallurgical industries. They can accumulate into living organisms and thus lead to health problems. Furthermore, regulations become ever more severe on maximum accepted concentration levels on wastewater. The project ESSENTIAL aims to develop an original and efficient continuous flow process using open cell polymer foams coated with a polyphenolic film of bio-based origin to capture and recover toxic metals. Thanks to its elastic feature, the compression of a polymer foam within a given volume should increase the global specific surface available to adsorb more metallic ions and thus increase the competitiveness of this approach. Furthermore, applying cycle of compression-release of the stationary phase during the adsorption or desorption step should intensify both. This strategy contributes to the sustainable management of natural resources, diversify the metals supply and will offer an original, economically competitive and eco-compatible pollution control alternative using a compressible, recoverable and recyclable filtration material.